Death by Cop 2022-2024
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David Luis Aguilera
Gender : Male
Age : 34
Race : Latino/a/e
Date : 03/27/2022
Location : 100 block of E Jackson Rd
City : Lake Arthur
County : Chaves
State : New Mexico
Agency : Chaves County SO
Officer(s) :oshua McKelvey, Benjamin Conklin, Cody Smithermon
Cause of Death : Gunshot
Event : Killed by police during disorderly conduct call
OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :
Chaves County deputies Joshua McKelveyvand Benjamin Conklin were called to a local dairy farm because David Aguilera was reportedly disorderly and tried to drive a tractor at work when someone called police. Police arrived and tasered him multiple times. He tried to escape the attack by driving away in a police vehicle. Officers Conklin and McKelvey shot and killed the unarmed man.Aguilera was polite, even apologetic toward the officers, and obviously confused, asking why he was being handcuffed. The deputy said he did not know what he had done to be arrested and he cursed Aguilera and tased him in response. It is unclear what escalated the situation because the bodycams of all 3 deputies stopped working at the same time when he was put in the cruiser and the video resumed later just prior to his killing. Officer McKelvey claimed that Aguilera picked up a pipe or tire iron but the other officers did not report this and the video evidence of what happened after he was put in the patrol car is inexplicably missing from all 3 deputies’ bodycams. Aguilera was reported by his family to be a dedicated family man with 6 children, 4 of whom were stepchildren whom he provided for and was reportedly a great parent to. After the killing, local media asked for Deputy Conklin to be indicted for his role in the avoidable death. Conklin had also previously shot and killed 65-year-old Craig Heinzen on July 16, 2021. After the Heintzen shooting, Conklin was struggling with mental health and alcoholism, spent 35 days as an inpatient in substance rehab and was at work mere weeks again when he killed Aguilera. The DA passed on the case and turned it over to the AG who reviewed it but did not indict the deputies.
SOURCE LINKS :
https://www.abqjournal.com/2502277/shooting-by-chaves-county-sheriffs-deputies-raises-questions.html
https://abq.news/2022/06/chaves-county-da-passes-off-case-of-deputies-killing-unarmed-man-to-ag/
